You Found Me
by The Jet's Lost Girl
Summary: Alyssa Crumrine thought moving to the San Fernando Valley was the worst thing to ever happen to her. She moved six hours away from everything she's ever known: her friends, the ball field, the local theater where she could catch any new Marilyn Monroe movies. But she finds friends in the boys of the sandlot, and their leader - Benny Rodriguez - makes the summer of '62 magical.
1. Chapter 1

"Well, kids. Here it is!" my dad said, trying to sound upbeat despite being tired from our long car ride.

"Great! It's beautiful! Can we go back to Pleasanton now?" I asked with fake enthusiasm in my voice as I saw my new house for the first time.

"Alyssa," my mom began, "We live here now, in the Valley. You might as well get used to it."

I rolled my eyes in protest and shared a glance with my eleven-year-old brother, Russell. He was usually way brattier than I was, and it confused me that he wasn't protesting like me, but his pissed off look showed me that he felt my pain. We had lived in Northern California our whole lives. All of our friends were there, all of the familiarity was there. But now we were here, in the San Fernando Valley, where Dodgers fans lurked around every corner. Not to promising considering we were a family of die hard Giants fans. And baseball was back home too, the guys I'd been playing with for years. I was their best infielder; they needed me, but I wouldn't be there.

I looked at our house, which wasn't in the richest part of town, so it was smaller than our old house. It was painted this slightly comforting yet slightly sickening shade of pastel yellow. I silently prayed that my parents would paint over it. It had little white shudders and a front lawn that had clearly seen better days. This was going to be just fantastic.

"Well, bring your boxes in when you're ready and pick out your rooms." my mom said as she and my dad went inside with boxes of their own. I looked in the back of my dad's pickup. There were plenty more where those came from, and a moving truck coming with our furniture.

"You don't want to go inside yet, do you?" I asked Russell.

"No." he said gloomily as he sat on the curb. I quickly joined him.

"This is shit, man." I said with venom. He nodded in agreement before I added, "It would be better if we could just skip this whole last month of school." He nodded again.

We both sat there in stony silence for another ten minutes, neither one of us in the mood to say anything. There was just this mutual understanding that things were going to be terrible here, and it needed no explanation. I didn't really spend that much "quality time" with my brother, but I felt less alone knowing that he hated this as much as I did. Finally, when my dad yelled at us to start helping, we got off of our lazy butts and got the boxes full of our stuff. Coincidentally, we both grabbed the ones with our gloves on top to start with. Once we carried our stuff inside, we scouted out the rooms. I really didn't care much, so I let Russell have whatever room he wanted before walking in the one across the hall and setting my box down, relieving my arms of the weight.

"Hey, Russ!" I yelled across the way. "Wanna play catch?"

"Well don't we have to get the rest of our boxes and crap?" he replied in an uncharacteristic display of discipline.

"Yeah, but since when was helping out around the house more important than baseball?" I smiled in his direction. We'd both been playing for seven years, since he started playing little league and my dad helped him learn the ropes. I'd caught the bug around that same time, and we both loved it, even though I loved music - singing, writing songs, and playing guitar - and acting more. That didn't matter, because when I was on the field, baseball was all that mattered. Being a girl, I obviously hadn't been allowed to play in the league, but I had snuck on the fields when no one was around with friends of mine and we'd play little scrimages. All of my friends were guys, but I still fit in with them like I was one of them, because I practically was.

"Okay fine." he said, smiling back. We both grabbed our gloves, he grabbed his only ball, and we went outside and played catch until it got dark outside.


	2. Chapter 2

"Come on, honey! Gotta get up now. You don't want to be late on your first day." my mom said, trying to coax me out of bed at seven in the morning. I never feel particularly agreeable at that hour.

"How about I don't go and save my first day for September? No one gives a crap about the new kids at the beginning of the year. Right now, though..."

"You're going to be fine." she assured me. Or tried to, anyway. "Everyone is going to adjust to you really fast."

"Why would they be the ones to do the adjusting?" I came back, slightly offended. "Do you think I'm weird or something?"

Her eyes widened. "No! God, no! It's just... you know how girls back home could be."

I sighed. Being one of the guys had always had its drawbacks, the main one being that all the girls looked at me like I was a freak of nature and let's face it, girls can be mean. I would always play it off like I was tough as nails, usually punching them or smacking them around a bit, but it did really get to me for a while. It got pretty serious I guess, but I can't let myself fall back into that place I was in. It was so... dark.

"It's fine. If they give me hell I'll just knock their lights out." I said with a slight smirk of pride.

"About that, I was thinking, maybe you could cut back on the fighting. And the hanging around with boys all the time. I mean, it's good to have some guy friends, but too many and you could get a reputation. A bad one. Maybe here will be your chance for a new start. You know, find some girl friends, buy a skirt..."

"Momma, I own a skirt. I can't promise you I'll wear it, but I own one. And I'm not gonna change, but I will get ready if you leave."

She gave me a silent smile, one that almost seemed pitiful, and then she left. She left my door open too, wide open. I hate that with a passion, so I got up, shut the door and dove back into bed where I slept for another ten minutes. When my mom came into my room then, she was pretty pissed.

"Seriously, Alyssa! Go get ready now!"

"Fine!" I snapped back, tired and irritable. Then I indignantly got up, brushed my teeth, straightened my shoulder-length brown hair and got dressed. I looked at myself in the mirror more than a tomboy should. I speculated my outfit of denim jeans and my Willie McCovey jersey - a significantly bold move in Dodger territory - and put some foundation and concealer on. I know it may come as a surprise, but yes, I do wear makeup, but only because I use it to cover up my mild acne. I was actually kind of insecure about it, and not just because the girls at my old school would comment on it relentlessly, even if it was barely noticeable.

"Alyssa! What do you want for breakfast?" my mom yelled down the hall.

"Just some toast, thanks!" I yelled back.

After slipping on my old Converse, which I'd always preferred to Keds' P.F. Flyers, I went out to the kitchen. My dad was reading the paper, my mom was getting food for my two dogs, Madi and Wendy, and my brother was eating scrambled eggs. I picked up my toast before looking at the clock. Crap! I had to get going.

"Thanks for the toast, momma, but we've gotta get going." I said, grabbing my backpack and handing Russell his. "Bye!"

"Bye! Love you!" my mom called out the door behind us.

The schools, both the elementary school and the junior high, weren't all that far from our house, so we were going to be doing a lot of walking for the next month. When we got to our destination, the street with both schools right next to each other, we parted ways.

"Well, bye you little sixth grader!" I said mockingly. When he glared at me, I covered up with, "From the overbearing eighth grader."

From there the day was torture. I could feel the eyes on me, hear them whisper to their friends about "the new girl in the huge Giants jersey". Girls hated me because I was practically a guy, and guys hated me for disgracing their precious Dodgers. I was too self conscious to even stare those Dodger Dogs with legs down. My mouth never opened once. I didn't raise my hand despite being pretty smart. I get A's a lot, but I wasn't really in the mood for actively participating, so I kept my mouth shut. I ate lunch in a bathroom stall. Long story short, it was a terrible day.

"Did your day make you want to crawl in a hole and die too?" I asked Russell as soon as I saw him.

"Yeah." he replied, looking as done as I felt. "No one knows any Giants stats here."

"I wouldn't know. I didn't even talk to anyone."

"That's new for you." he said, sounding surprised.

I shrugged, and the rest of the walk was spent in silence. When we got home and opened the door, we were greeted by Madi and Wendy, who were huge yellow labs, by the way. After jumping all over us, they seemed to realize that they had a chance at escape, and they took off running down the street.

"Oh shit!" I yelled, and then we both dropped our backpacks and ran like our lives depended on it. We were yelling after them like crazy, both of us giving our best effort to catch them. All I could focus on was finding them and getting them back to the house. I had to keep running. I had to, but then impact knocked me to the ground.

"What the f-" I started, but I was cut off when I saw a pair of deep, gentle brown eyes staring into my usually cold ones. I'd always hated having brown eyes because I thought they were boring, but his eyes... they were so beautiful that I didn't realize I'd forgotten how to breathe.

"Sorry!" he said, slightly wincing as he picked himself up off of the ground.

"It's... it's alright." I replied, standing up myself. "I was just chasing my... my dogs."

"Labs?" he asked.

"Yeah."

"They just came by a little while ago."

As if on cue, my brother came by with Madi by the collar and Wendy obediently trotting after him. I smiled with a small sense of victory.

"Well, I guess that's handled." I said.

"Hey, are you new or something?" he asked.

"Oh! Yeah. We moved in yesterday." I replied as I eyed his Dodgers jersey. I was mingling with the enemy.

He smiled. "Well I'm just over there." He pointed across the street. "My name's Benny, by the way. Benny Rodriguez."

Benny. It suited him. "I'm Alyssa Crumrine."

"I'll remember it. Just don't ask me to spell it."

I smirked. My last name was kind of a doozy. Man, this Benny kid was attractive. I mean really attractive. After a while of silent staring, I said, "Oh, well, I'd better get going. See you around."

"Yeah, see you." he said.

"And Benny?" I said as he started to walk away.

"Yeah?"

"Go Giants." And with that, I walked into my house feeling not nearly as bad about my day as I had before.


End file.
